Vans

Check out how weathered my vans are.

I think I've had these for two years. Sure, I've worn them a lot, but I don't think anything could have bleached them as well as living on the equator under the hot African sun.

I thought, hey, maybe if I use actual bleach, they'll turn completely beige and I'll have a whole new look.

Nope.

Dress Up

I snapped these photos so you could see what cool hairstyles I've been doing on Reyna.

They're not super elaborate, and it is a struggle sometimes, but I do enjoy doing her hair. She's getting so big.

Reyna likes looking through her closet. Usually I have to supervise her because she'll just destroy all the folded piles.

But it's good practice for standing on her own. 

This time, she wanted to try on these Tigger slippers. I count it as her first time playing dress up.

Cute girl!

Plumeria

Plumeria may possibly be my most favorite flower. I like the colors, of course, and I love the smell.

I liked seeing them grow wild in Hawaii, and I love that they grow all over the place here in Nyali. Everyday, the boys pick up a pile of freshly fallen flowers on our walk home from school.

This time, Paulo got lucky and found a six petaled flower! I don't know how rare it is. Usually they're only five petals. He considered it lucky, like a four leafed clover. Cool, eh?

Hunter's Birthday

For Hunter's birthday, I didn't plan very much, BUT I did buy some water balloons. All I had to do was fill them up, and Hunter and the boys' natural childishness took care of the rest--instant party!

The water fight, of course, made it's way over to the swimming pool.

Afterward, I had planned a family dinner at an expensive Japanese restaurant nearby.

It was lovely. They had a normal restaurant dining room, and tepanyaki grill-type of area, a sushi bar, and also a more traditional family table that was low to the ground with nice cushioned chairs. The food was pretty close to what we had eaten in Okinawa. Excellent food.

Side note--when we were there, a Filipino family walked in. It looked like a family with a mother, father, three teenagers and a house help. I glanced over for a second and saw the house help lady pull out her cell phone and start playing around on it. Then I noticed that each person at the table was looking at his or her phone, all sitting at the same table but all interacting with their own phones. Then I looked at the next table, and an Indian mother sat staring into space while her two teenage children were also fiddling around with their phones. It was pretty bazaar. I told the kids to discreetly look over at what I had observed. I said, kids, we are never going to do that. When we go out to dinner, I want us to be spending time with one another--not with our phones!…I'll get off my soap box now.

Oh, and of course, we had cake afterward. The cool candles were sparklers.

I'm so grateful that such a cool person was born into this world 34 years ago!

Rainy Season

Seriously, when is it going to end? It takes two and a half days for my clothes to air-dry even under the roof where I put up my ropes.

The pictures don't do justice to the amount of water we're talking about, but you can at least see that the garden/planter box off our front patio is filled with water, like a small pond.

Sometimes the water comes up to the back door.

I wish I had a picture of the humongous puddle at the end of our street. It's so massive that it covers the entire intersection. It makes walking to and from school quite a challenge. Our shoes get really muddy.

Poor Hunter has to make his way to and from work on the piki piki in the unpredictable rains. Fortunately he has some rain gear. 

Most people who walk to and from work usually just wait under a tree or a building for the rain to lighten up before they continue on their way. The majority of pedestrians don't have umbrellas. Makes you grateful for the ease of riding in a car.